I'm going to preach on doctrines
of the Bible. And I've been on my mind and
my heart for months. And I feel like it's the Lord's
time for me maybe to start doing it. So tonight I want to start. I'm going to give you an introduction
to it. And there's so many great doctrines that's in the Bible.
There's so many doctrines related to the Lord Jesus Christ, His
person. God and man, His eternality,
His humanity, sinless humanity, His atonement, His substitution,
all of His offices, and then so many that relate to God. And
I hope that the Lord will be pleased to meet with us and enable
me to say some things about this. But look here in verse 29, Deuteronomy
29 and 29. The secret things belong unto
the Lord our God. Deuteronomy 29, 29. The secret things belong unto
the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong unto
us and to our children forever. And here's the consequences.
Here's the results of it. That we may do all the words
of this law, which is the whole book of God. Now, you know, when
I talk about doctrine, you've seen there where I read where
Paul said, you know what manner of doctrine, my manner of doctrine,
what my doctrine is. And the Scriptures has much to
say about doctrine. Look over here in Deuteronomy
32, in verse one, look what he says. Give ear, O ye heavens, and I
will speak, and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth. This is
God speaking now. My doctrine shall drop as the
rain. My speech shall distill as the
dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the shower
upon the grass, because I'll publish it. This is the doctrine
of God. I'll publish the name of the Lord God, ascribe greatness
unto our God. He is the rock. His work is perfect,
for all His ways are judgment. A God of truth and without iniquity,
just and right is He. That's just full of doctrine.
And God says, my doctrine shall drop down as due. But now the
first thing I want to do and ask you to say is this. Is it
right to do this? Is it right for us to start and
go through, maybe spend months, weeks, maybe a year, dealing
with Bible doctrine, the doctrines of the Bible? There's lots of
people who derive doctrine. I don't know how many people
I've met over the years and they'll say that, you know, I don't want
to hear doctrine, I just want to hear about Jesus. But it's
impossible. It's impossible. I've never preached
a message, never taught a lesson that was not full of doctrine. It's impossible to deal with
this Bible and preach and teach doctrine. My message Sunday morning
was full of doctrine. What does it mean to see the
Son? First thing I dealt with was the reality of Christ. Dealt with Christ being God. God in Christ revealing Himself. Making Himself known. The depravity
of man. He was such a ruin, an absolute
ruin. You cannot preach the Scriptures
without teaching doctrine. And I'm going to tell you what
doctrine means. It just means, yes, it's simple.
It's so simple. It just means teaching. That's
all it means, teaching. Teaching. That's all it means.
It means instruction. Paul, that's why he says, Timothy,
you know my manner of doctrine. You know what I've always taught.
You know the instructions that I give. And it's learning. It's
learning. And let me show you. You keep
Deuteronomy 29. Well, you don't have to. But
anyway, look over here with me in John 7. Just a minute. Look
what our Lord said over here in John 7. Look what it said
about Him. John 7, verse 15. It just means teaching, and we're
going to go through the great teaching, the great doctrine,
the great truths of the Bible, the Word of God.
Here in John 7, verse 15, and how the Jews marveled, saying,
How knoweth this man letters, or learning, having never learned? Listen to what our Lord said.
My doctrine is not mine, but His that sent me. God sent me
here with teaching. God sent me here with truths.
I didn't dream this up myself. This is the doctrine of God.
This is the doctrine of God. This is the doctrine that God
gave me. And if any man will do his will, he shall know of
the doctrine, whether it be of God or whether I speak of myself. And that's why Paul told Timothy,
he says, you know, take heed to thyself and thy doctrine,
and doing this thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear
you. Them that hear you. So the Scripture
is full of this. And you know, there was a time,
there was a time that the teaching, the great doctrines of the Bible,
the teaching of it was common. It was a common thing to do.
You go and you look back through history, John Gill, I was telling
Mary on the way to church, I've got four, four books on theology,
four books on nothing but theology. I've got two body of divinities. I've got a set of the existence
and attributes of God by Stephen Charnock. And all these things
have to do with theology and great Bible documents, but John
Gill, taught his church, and that's what his body of divinity
is about, over a thousand pages. And you take Thomas Watson, that's
his body of divinity was used and he taught his congregation
these great doctrines and truths of the Bible. John Calvin, his
Calvin Institute was written by him preaching and teaching
the great doctrines of the Bible. And Don Fortner, a couple years
ago, he published a book called The Basic Doctrines of the Bible.
So he done it. But the question is, is it right
for us to do this? Is it right for you and I to
do this? But there's three things I want to answer in tonight's
message, if I can. What are we going to do in these
doctrines, in these studies? What is it that we're going to
do in these studies? How are we going to do it? And why are
we going to do it? Why are we going to do it? Well,
what are we going to do when we talk about studying these
great doctrines of the Bible? You know, the Bible teaches certain
truths. The Bible just teaches certain
truths. It's a book with definite objectives. It's like I just
read you. God says, My doctrine shall drop
down as dew and describe greatness to the Lord our God. That objective
of His doctrine is to describe greatness to Him. So the Bible
has definite objectives. Its teaching has certain ends.
So we take these truths to bring us to certain places, to have
effects upon us, to have effects upon the people that were here.
Now, I know the Bible, I know this about it, it's not a general
history of the world. Oh, no, it's not a history of
the world. If you want a history book, go read history, American
history, world history. And it non-factum will tell you
this, it doesn't even give us a complete history of all that
God has done in this world. Oh, no. You got 12, 2000 years
crammed into the first 11 chapters of the book of Genesis. So you
can't begin to tell them, oh, God's done it. If God told everything
that he's ever done in this world, and everything he's ever done,
there's not a book that all the libraries in the world wouldn't
hold the books. You know, that's why John says
this, if all the works that Christ had done had been written down,
I suppose that all the books that should be written, the world
could not take the whole. And you know the Gospels of the
Lord Jesus Christ, the four Gospels, they only deal with three years
of our Lord's life. So you see, this Bible, it doesn't
even give us a complete history, don't give us a complete history
of the Lord Jesus Christ. But what is the Bible about?
What is this blessed book about? Well, it's the story of redemption.
This Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, is the story is the blessed truth
of God's redemptive purpose in Christ in this world. It's about
what God has done and is doing for Adam's fallen race. That's
what this book's about. That's what it's about. God came
into this world and He manifested and gave us a book to tell us
what He's doing in the purpose of saving sinners through His
redemptive work. The Bible's message is the message
of redemption. by God, from God, in a way that
you and I can see and understand. And that's what I want to know
about. That's what I want to know about
more than anything else. There's one book that's called
The History of Redemption. You go through that, and then
you've got to go to the place you're going to find that. That's in the Bible. And our redemption, and God's
redemption, He unfolds it in His blessed Word. And as it's
unfolding, As this manifested from His Word, as many truths,
as we search this and study about it and find out what God's doing
in His redemptive purpose, many truths are confronted with us
while we're studying them that may have known nothing. And some
of the doctrines that we'll be confronted with while you're
studying through God's redemptive purpose is, first of all, we've
got to find about the Bible itself, this blessed book. You know what
this book claims to be? You know what it claims to be?
It claims to be the Word of God. Huh? Why do we look in this? Why do we want to study this?
Why do we want to know what it says? Why are we interested in
reading it? Why are we interested in finding
out what it has to say to us or anybody else? What does this
book teach about itself? Why study or believe anything
unless we start, first of all, what this book claims to be? And then, secondly, the doctrine
of God. We're going to be confronted
with the doctrine of God. You've got to start with the
book. Don't even start with God until you face the claims of
the Bible. It's what it says about itself. It says, and I read it to you
just a minute ago, all scripture is given by inspiration of God. Now, you're talking about it,
and there's a lot of people saying, well, I don't believe this about
the Bible, that about the Bible. You're either going to believe
all of it or none of it. That's just the way it is. A lot of
people are picking shoes. Homosexuals want to take out
the part that condemns them. People who commit adultery, they
want to take out the part that condemns them. Free-wheelers
want to change it around to suit them. A hyper-cabiness wants
to change it around to suit him. But, beloved, we must be by God's
grace true to what the Scriptures say. And the Scriptures tells
us we're not only going to fire-space the book itself, but the doctrine
of God Himself. You know what the first words
in this book is? In the beginning, God. In the beginning, God. The first
one we meet when we open this book is God Himself. It's His
revelation. We come to the Bible to hear
the truth about first and foremost about Him. Paul said, let's adorn
the doctrine of our God our Savior. Let's honor God. If we take kingdom
ministry, that'd be blaspheme, not the doctrine of God. Oh,
my. And then, my Lord, then we go
to the doctrine of God. Then we come down to the doctrine
of man. What is man? Where did he come from? How did
he come into existence? What state is he in right now?
What condition is he in? And redemption, who is redemption
for? If there's redemption, this is
the book of redemption, who's redemption for? It sure ain't
for angels. It's for man. And then we come
to this blessed doctrine of Christ. Oh, the glorious truth of Christ,
the Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior. And we come to face the blessed
truths that redemption's in Him and in Him alone. No other person. In the Old Testament, everything
about the Old Testament is about Him and points forward to Him.
And what He's going to do, you start out in Genesis chapter
1 and then chapter 3 and chapter 4, and the first thing you're
confronted with is there's someone coming. And everything in this
Old Testament keeps pointing forward to Him coming. Huh? And everything in the New Testament
tells us what He did what was accomplished to redeem some of
Adam's fallen race. That it's accomplished, that
it's actually done. And then we're going to deal
with, you know, just show you under this business of redemption,
the doctrine of salvation. The blessed doctrine of salvation.
How are men saved? How's a man saved? How do we have Christ's redemption
applied to us? What happens to us? What takes
place to us? What happens to us when this
salvation is applied? When this own redemption of Christ
is applied to us, this salvation is applied to us and brought
to us, what takes place with us? What happens to us? And then there's the blessed
doctrine of the Church. Now, what is the Church? What
is the Church? It's not this building. You know, we existed as a church
long before we had this building. What is the church? How are we
made members of the church? How do you become a member of
this church? How are we brought into the church? How are we made
a member of this church? How are we brought into it and
exist in it and live in it? Who's the head of it? How is
it established? And then there's the doctrine
of last thanks. They call it eschatology. That's a big word. All I know is that it means doctrine
of the last things. I could have gave you the name
of every one of these. Doctrine of Zoology, Doctrine of Anthropology
and all that, you know, give you all that. But that's what
theology does. And we're not going to do that.
We don't want to go that route. But what it means, the doctrine
of the last things, what is God's purpose for His people and this
world in the end? What's going to be the end of
all things? Know this also, that in the last
days, perilous times should come. What will happen in the end?
What will happen to us? What will happen to those who
don't know Christ? What will happen to those who haven't been
redeemed? What's going to happen to them? So those are the last
things we'll deal with. So that's what we're going to
do. That's what we're going to do. How are we going to do it?
How are we going to go about it? Well, let me tell you what
it won't be. Let me tell you what it won't
be. It won't be a series of theology. It won't be a whole series of
messages on theology. And I'll tell you why it won't
be. Theology is the science of God. Theology, the first thing
theology does, every theology book I've got in there, from
John Gales, Thomas Watson, Boyce's, Dagg's, Every single one of them. The
first thing they do is try to prove the existence of God. That's what the first thing,
that's the first thing it does, try to prove the existence of
God. The Bible don't even do that.
And you know, they start out by trying to prove the existence
of God. First of all, they go to creation. Then they go to
man's moral nature. Then they go to all the historical
evidences. And you can't prove it, you know.
And you know the Bible doesn't do that. You know what the Bible
does? It just declares that He is. I was up in Michigan one time
years and years and years ago. And me and a fellow was staying
in this house and somebody came in and this other preacher, turned
out not to be much of a preacher, But anyway, this person got the
complaint of being agnostic, so he was going to prove to them
the existence of God. Because he had been to one of
these Bible colleges, been to one of these Bible seminaries,
and been there, and he's going to teach this person, he's going
to prove to them the existence of God. And I sat there, and
I thought, I listened to him talk a while, and I says, It's
impossible to prove the existence of God. God Himself doesn't prove
it. He just declares that, I am God,
and beside me there is none else. Come unto me, all ye, come unto
me, all ye beings of the earth, and be saved. Say unto Zion,
thy God reigneth in the beginning, God. Moses, go down there and
tell Pharaoh, let my people go. Who am I going to say said, let
me go? I am that I am. You tell him, let me go. So, you know, we're trying to
prove the existence of God. You talk about a futile effort,
and I'll tell you something else we're not going to do in dealing
with these blessed truths of the Bible. We're not going to
defend the doctrine that we find in God's Word. We're not going
to defend it. There's whole book after book
after book is written, they're called apologetics. And what
they do is they defend the Word. All these people, they assail
the Word. There have been two or three books put out in the
last couple of years of people denying religion and saying,
God, how awful he must be, how cruel he must be, and what religion's
done and the awful effects it's had in this world. There can't
be a God that can do this and that and the other. And I know
a fellow that I know very well, he's written a book to apologize,
and apologetics answered all those objections to the truths
of God's Word. God's Word does not need defending.
His doctrine does not need to be apologized for. We don't need
to defend the Word of God any time, way, shape, or form, or
fashion. God's able to defend Himself. He's kept this book
in our hands since 1611. He's kept a people on the face
of this earth for over 6,000 years. And He's preserved them. And he's taught them, and he's
instructed them, and believe me, he can defend himself. He
don't need a little old whipstitch something like me to defend anything
he says. Does he? He don't need me to
defend, like, you know, creation. We believe creation. We're going
to deal with the creation of God. Over here is evolution.
Well, now, an apologetic, when he'd take creation, he'd start
taking all these other things, and he'd start taking creation
and make an apologetic defending creation in light of evolution.
I don't believe in evolution, so why in the world would I defend
creation against evolution? So you wasted it, and you know
that's what we do. You know, there what we said
in Deuteronomy 29, the secret things belong unto the Lord.
That's what we believe. The secret things belong unto
Him. The ultimate explanation of things is what we're talking
about, belong unto the Lord. But you know what belongs to
us? The things that He's revealed. And I'm not, you know, and it's
like the doctrine of sin. Spurgeon wrote a little article
on this one time. Someone says, well, I want to
know where evil comes from. I want to know where evil comes
from. Well, I don't know where it comes from.
I just know that when Adam was created, that he sinned. And
that when he sinned, we all sinned in him, because that's what the
Bible says. Now, where does evil come from when it comes through
that serpent? Where does he come from? I don't
know. But what I'm interested in and what I'm grateful for
and what I want to face is how sin's put away. I don't care where it comes from
and how it got here. I know how it got here, how sin
got here, but I'm grateful that I know how it got out of here.
I know how it got away from me and was taken away from me. And
so God helping us, we'll stay with what the Bible says. We'll
not defend God's Word. We'll not defend any of His doctrine.
You know, no matter what anybody says. We don't have to defend
the Word of God. Don't have to defend it. And
let me ask, here's the third thing that I wanted to say. This is the third thing I wanted to
say is this. Why do I believe? We should study the doctrines
of the Bible, the great doctrines of the Bible. Why do I believe
that? Why do I believe we should study systematically in an orderly
way? Well, the prophets did. The prophets
did. Whenever you find the prophets,
all the first five books of the Bible are written by Moses. And
it's full of doctrine. Moses came when he came down
off the mountain. He came down off the mountain with what? God's
law, God's teaching, God's instruction. This is what I want you to know.
This is what I want you to see. This is what I want you to understand.
This is what I want you to face. This is the God you're going
to have to face. This is the way that I'm going
to deal with you. Huh? Isaiah. He taught doctrine. All the way
through, he taught doctrine. And then, oh my, so the prophets
did it. You go through the scriptures.
You go through the prophets, and they all did it. And they all
did it. And our Lord did it. I just read
to you there where they said, where'd this man have learned,
having never learned letters, where'd he get all his learning
from? And he says, my doctrine is not mine, but his is in me.
And if any man's of God, he'll know the doctrine is either of
God or myself. And when our Lord's Sermon on
the Mount, that's what he did. He took the law, and he took
the prophets, and he took man's traditions, And he says, you've
heard it said, but I say unto you, and he took all those traditions
and all those false interpretations, and he taught doctrine from that.
He taught us from that. He taught us about what a believer
is, what God's word is, what the law, the purpose of the law
is, and how we're to treat one another in this world. And when
you go through the book of Acts, you listen to Peter's very first
message. Very first message. He started
using the Old Testament. He started with the Old Testament.
That's all he had to quote from. And he took that Old Testament,
and he proclaimed the Lord Jesus Christ, and the doctrines concerning
Him, that this same Jesus, whom you crucified, He's both Lord
and Christ. He was that just one that you,
with wicked hands, crucified. He was the Prince of Life. And so you see, and they began
to show Christ and God's purpose fulfilled in Him. And then you
go, the third John, first third little John, it talks about the
doctrine of Christ. He said, if any man comes unto
you and brings not the doctrine of Christ, Neither ask him in the house,
neither bid him Godspeed. For if you do, you are a protector
of him and of his. And all the epistles, when Paul
wrote the Romans, full of doctrine. Galatians, doctrine. Ephesians, Hebrews, 1 Peter. 1 Peter starts off with this,
talking about us being Redeemed by the blood of Christ,
the Spirit of God coming to us, and the blood of Christ being
sprinkled on us, and we being elect of God. It starts right
off that way. And let me tell you this in closing.
In these truths, these blessed truths that I hope that God will
enable us to deal with, we should desire to know not to be puffed
up. Not to be puffed up at all. No. Not just so we can say our heads
are filled with knowledge, but the whole purpose of this blessed
book and all the great doctrines that's in it is that we might
learn of Him, learn of Him who loved us, of God who is high,
God who is holy, that He'd bring us to the place that we'd be
filled with awe, with wonder, And we would approach Him in
worship and approach Him in praise. And anything that don't bring
us to that, we have no business fooling with. Anything that won't
bring us to worship and praise and adore and worship our God. So if these truths don't lead
us to do that, and every truth we face in the Scripture don't
make us to do that. Man, you know, he's running around
here all the time saying, I found Him. I discovered Him. I found
the Lord. I come back to the Lord. I've
done this for the Lord, done that for the Lord. Well, this
blessed book tells us, not what anybody done for the Lord, that
everything that was ever done for man, the Lord did it. The
Lord did it. First thing you dealt with, man
didn't exist until God made him. When man sinned, God stepped
in. Provided blood, provided clothing. That's what we'll deal with next
week, God willing. Revelation, God revealing Himself. God revealing
Himself. God revealing Himself. Our Father, in the blessed name
of the Lord Jesus Christ, thank you for your mercies to us. Thank
you for helping us tonight. I pray that you'd be pleased
to meet with us as we approach these wonderful blessed truths
of your precious word. Lord, we have none to look to
but you. We don't want to deal with nothing but your own word.
We don't want philosophy. We don't want reasonings. We
don't want opinions. We don't want feelings. We want
that wisdom that comes from above. We want that understanding that
comes strictly from you. We want that power speaking that
power of learning, that power of instruction, that power of
teaching that comes only from You. God bring glory to Yourself
through us as only You can and pray that You will. We ask in
Christ's name. Amen.